|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 2, 2008 11:02:01 GMT -5
In the "Repaint Requests" section, you can view a conversation between me and RAI co-founder Marc Hookerman, who offered me the honor of keeping this project alive when his daughter was born and he elected to retire.
When I accepted the offer, as RAI would have ceased to exist had I not, I never imagined we would be where we are today. Our ranks have grown, bolstered with many talented painters and programmers. I was especially moved when Paul Haak joined, as his FS5 lime green Braniff 727 was the very first plane I ever downloaded for FS a decade ago.
Today marks 10 years to the day from when I released my first FS add-on, the original version of Fort Worth's Amon Carter Field. In that time I have seen so many advances and so many talents release add-ons that have really made it possible to relive the past in the FS world.
My thanks goes out to everyone who has contributed their time and energy to this labor of love we call RAI. A further thanks goes to all who endeavor to make the wonder years of our pasts come alive again, to resurrect the fallen angels, to rebuild the buildings long demolished, to remind us of a simpler time when we could watch planes up close instead of at a distance in the name of "security".
In the United States, public viewing areas are rare, most all of them lost in the hysteria following 9/11. To say I feel these actions were an overreaction is stating it mildly - I believe it borders on the offensive and flies in the face of the principles of freedom this country claims it is protecting by making us less tolerant, more afraid, and limiting our movement and access.
But, this isn't about politics, it is more about the fact we have lost something. I know that I will never be able to take my child to the airport and view the aircraft up close and personal like my parents did for me 30+ years ago. My parents were even so attentive to my love of aviation that they pulled me out of school one day in 1978 just so we could go to Will Rogers World Airport and see the Concorde arrive on its promotional tour with Braniff. (But not so attentive that my Mom didn't later decide for me that my stockpile of late 1970's/early 1980's timetables were not trash and not toss them...grrr!)
So, with the loss of our actual planespotting venues, we are left with the virtual version. And I love it, I love the fact that when I turn on my computer and load FS, it's 1975 all over again - only without the polyester, bell bottoms, and (ugh!) disco! So again, thanks to all of you who have contributed to RAI and made us such a success. I only mind the store, you guys keep it in business!
|
|
|
|
Post by tgibson on Jun 2, 2008 13:05:40 GMT -5
Hi Kris,
Congratulations on your anniversary! It's been about 12 years for me - the first thing I released was a Pacific Air Lines DC-3 (with working door) for FS5.1. Wow, a long time ago...
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 2, 2008 14:12:06 GMT -5
Hi Kris, Congratulations on your anniversary! It's been about 12 years for me - the first thing I released was a Pacific Air Lines DC-3 (with working door) for FS5.1. Wow, a long time ago... Thanks! Your old "Classic Airliners" page was among the first I ever visited. As I recall, I downloaded Trev Morson's Braniff DC-3, and the Western Connie - plus that original Connie panel. Not to mention the first California 1959 scenery to fly the Connie in. I think my first flight using it was fron KSAC to KSFO with at stop at KOAK - not a route Western actually flew with the Connie, AFAIK, but I remember how stunning and real I thought the flight looked, visually. Mind you, while I had played around with FS4 and 5, as well as the first ASD, I never owned them, I always used friend's computers. Oddly, for someone who later went on to have a career in IT, I went through a phase in the early 1990's where I had to hold on to the Commodore 128 I got for Christmas in 1985 (that machine still ran flawlessly when I sold it in 1998). I had tried to buy a new computer on credit at Best Buy when I started working at Will Rogers and the aviation bug bit me again, but since I hadn't really established any credit beyond the one Visa card I had in college and later canceled, I didn't get approved. So, it had to wait until my then-girfriend got a computer as a gift from her father before retiring the Commodore. That was a monster machine - 200mhz Pentium II with maybe 32mb of RAm (could have been 16mb, I don't recall) and just 2D graphics. But, all my early design work was done on that machine, including Amon Carter V1. There was an Amon Carter V2 in the works, but the drive crashed and I lost it. After she and I split, I got a Celeron 400 machine with a 3D card, and that blew me away the first time I flew in FS! I later maxed that machine out, installing all the RAM the board could take, getting the fastest PCI video card I could, and I nursed it along through FS2002. It served me well - I still have it, and it still runs fine, thougn now it has Free BSD installed and will serve as a firewall box for when and if I ever go get my own web server. But at the the start, I basically ended up upgrading directly from FS2 to FS98 - definitely a world of difference! We sure have come a long way since those days! Not only has FS changed so much, but I now have more computers that can run FS9 than I regularly use - two desktops and a laptop all have it installed! I still have copies of FS98, 2000, and 2002 as well - I should reinstall them for old time's sake... Oh, and I have an old Pentium II laptop with Windows 98SE on it that has ATP, FS4, and FS5.1 all installed - haven't touched it in maybe a year, I should crank it up and go back in time! |
|
|
|
Post by chrisP on Jun 2, 2008 14:18:20 GMT -5
Happy B-Day, "Amon Carter Field" and thanks for everything, Kris!
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 2, 2008 14:27:34 GMT -5
Happy B-Day, "Amon Carter Field" and thanks for everything, Kris! Thanks! And one of these days, I will FINALLY complete the "as real as it gets" update of Amon Carter - we might be up to FSXX by then and I'll be doing it from my wheelchair at the retirement center, but it will eventually get done. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 2, 2008 15:26:56 GMT -5
Congrats and a huge 'THANKS' for helping us bring back the glory years of commercial aviation, whichever years those may be for each of us. Without RAI, I never really would have realized how much I enjoy, and miss, the 1980's (from an aviation standpoint, anyway...oh, and Flock of Seagulls) Ugh...I had A Flock of Seagulls hair back in the 1980's - thanks for reminding me of that. And we won't discuss the clothes. Nevertheless, I heard "I Ran" on WXRT the other day, and it's still a good song. I did manage to hold off my 1980's musical nostalgia and skip Duran Duran at the Rosemont Theater (liked the "Rio" album, and "A View to a Kill", but never was a fan otherwise) - but did see the Cure at the Allstate, and am going to see REM at the United Center. |
|
|
|
Post by jetstar on Jun 2, 2008 18:30:06 GMT -5
Hi Kris, Congratulations on your anniversary! It's been about 12 years for me - the first thing I released was a Pacific Air Lines DC-3 (with working door) for FS5.1. Wow, a long time ago... Hi Kris and Tom. Well its........................... 13 years for me. The first paints I ever did were the two Court Line TriStars. I was one of the Lucky few that Brian Quayle would give his AFX's to and that is how I got started firstly painting and then poly bashing. Back in those days you had to have the source files to be able to repaint the aircraft and Brian's were the best. Old N305BN. I remember it well. Good old F5 with its 256 colour limitation (and most of those were shades of grey!!). There are still a few of us oldies around from the FS5 days, but some have passed on and others have hung up their paint brushes for good. When Project Freeware imploded back in early 2001, I quit FS and hardly used FS2002 at all. Its hard to think that I only got back into FS by picking up a cheap copy of FS2004 one weekend and started flying again. I managed to clock up quite a few flying hours before I found AI aircraft, and since then................ Nothing!!! When I found RAI, I downloaded everything as this brought back lots of memories from my departed youth. Back then I spent all my time plane spotting and miss the old timers and departed carriers, but RAI lets me relive those days. It was RAI which got me back into painting, then into flight planning and now back into modeling. So Kris and Marc, thanks for taking off of the FS unemployed list ;D Paul |
|
|
|
Post by dc10boy on Jun 2, 2008 19:40:56 GMT -5
:DAll you guys........I can't really thank you enough. the airline industry really sucks today.I wouldn't sim nearly as much as I do today if I couldn't go back to when it was fun.I really appreciate you all for my virtual 1975 and 1985 worlds. thank you again
Stan
|
|
|
|
Post by braniffops on Jun 2, 2008 19:41:26 GMT -5
As one who has also been running in this 'hobby' since FS4 came out (much to the chagrin of my significant other), I'd also like to congratulate Kris on that anniversary as well... See...this is what happens when you try to start a VA modeled after Braniff International, only to find out someone else has done gone a done a better one.  |
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 2, 2008 20:54:21 GMT -5
As one who has also been running in this 'hobby' since FS4 came out (much to the chagrin of my significant other), I'd also like to congratulate Kris on that anniversary as well... See...this is what happens when you try to start a VA modeled after Braniff International, only to find out someone else has done gone a done a better one. Funny how that worked out - and now we live no more than 30 miles away and STILL haven't managed to coordinate schedules so we can actually meet in person... I have always gotten the sense your SO isn't so fond of your FS habit, given that virtually every time I call and she answers, I can detect an "Oh, sheesh, I've lost him for another two hours!" tone in her voice...lol! Sim widows...a few girlfriends of mine got perturbed when I'd get in that "FS Zone" and my mind was only on completing whatever flight I was doing or whatever project I was working on. But, I think you were the one who said "At least she knows where I am..." So I guess that's something. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by ElliottD on Jun 3, 2008 4:06:56 GMT -5
Only discovered Retro AI a year or so ago. Being born in 1990 I never got to appreciate the good old days when aircraft made real amounts of noise. To the best of my knownledge though my first flight was on an Iberia 727 in 1992, cant remember much of it though which is unfortunate.
Still, I like to backdate and see airlines and aircraft long gone in their heyday. I'm on hiatus at the moment though due to exams, but summer isnt too far off ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Jun 3, 2008 6:56:23 GMT -5
Only discovered Retro AI a year or so ago. Being born in 1990 I never got to appreciate the good old days when aircraft made real amounts of noise. To the best of my knownledge though my first flight was on an Iberia 727 in 1992, cant remember much of it though which is unfortunate. Still, I like to backdate and see airlines and aircraft long gone in their heyday. I'm on hiatus at the moment though due to exams, but summer isnt too far off ;D Wow, you're only 18 and yet so accomplished. THAT is the kind of thing I love to see - younger people getting into and contributing. My first flight was in the autumn of 1971 aboard a Frontier Airlines CV-580 from Oklahoma City to my parents' hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. But, I wasn't actually born for another couple of months ;D I think the first flight I was on after I was born was in 1974 from Oklahoma City to Newark on Braniff, then we rode down to Fort Dix so my dad could his mustering-in work for the Army, and then from McGuire AFB to Rhein-Main AFB in Frankfurt aboard a Seaboard World DC-8. We lived the last two years or so of my dad's tour of duty in Grossenhausen, which was right under the approach paths to runways 25 L/R at Frankfurt-Main. That is where aviation really bit me, and I would sit in the front yard with my dad's binoculars and watch the traffic. In '75, my mom and I came back to the States to visit. My momclaims we flew Frankfurt to Shannon, Ireland on Pan Am, then across to Chicago, but I'm pretty sure we actually stopped at Heathrow. From Chicago, we flew aboard a Braniff 727 to Tulsa (the closest major airport to Bartlesville) and landed just after a tornado had tore through the east side of the city - right in the flight path into KTUL's primary ILS runway! But that was Braniff - ya all come back now, ya hear! They didn't have jetways back then, and that was the goodbye from the FA as we walked down the rain-soaked steps and across the ramp into the terminal. Final flight of that period was in 1977,when my dad's tour was up. We flew from Frankfurt to Heathrow on an Pan Am 707, then across the pond on a Pan Am 747. I can even tell you the in-flight movie, it was Network". But, in our section, the notoriously unreliable MUX entertainment system (they were known for melting themselves) failed and all we had was sound and what we could see on the screen in the cabin ahead. We landed at Boston and had a few hours layover. I remember eating a hot dog and watching Dick Clark on "10,000 Pyramid" before boarding a flight to La Guardia. My mom, being alone with a kid, did not want to spend any more time in KLGA than it takes to run from one gate to another. This was New York in 1977 - the Son of Sam hadn't been caught yet, and the ciy had a very ugly reputation then. From there it was on to Tulsa. Roast beef and chicken were the meal choices - yeah, in-flight service in coach, that is pretty much a extinct animal, at least in the US. Such great times - airlines used to give us kids so much. I still have a collection of "kiddie wings" from that era and into the 1990's. When I worked at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, I thalked many a gate agent out of those wings. One Northwest agent gave me a bag of 20 or so of their wings. I gave most of them away to kids at the security checkpoint I worked, but kept two for myself - one to mount in a frame with the others I had, and one to keep pristine for sale or trade. My favorite of all those wings are probably the ones from Republic's early days - with the double "Herman" in the center. I also have real metal wings from TWA that date to the 1960's that are really nice. My "trophy", though, is not a pair of wings, but a circa 1940 lapel pin of a Boeing Stratoliner that TWA gave to those lucky enough to fly on the plane's inaugural flights. Memories... |
|
|
|
Post by jetstar on Jun 3, 2008 9:16:52 GMT -5
Mmmhh........... First plane I ever went on was G-ASIX, VC-10 of BUA, plus a couple of 1-11s and then a BUIA DC-3................... was about 1969. First flight was 1974 LHR to CGN on an old LH 727-030QC. I my later life I "grew up" and spent more hours in BCAL 1-11's than I can possibly remember. I even managed a couple of hours in CV-580's in Canada in the late 80's. I grew up with noise and smoke and have vivid memories of the DC's, Brit's VC-8's etc droning over the house during the 60's. LGW is only 12 miles away by road so they are around me all the time. Kris, never managed a DC-8, but I did get a 707 flight. OTP-BRU-LHR on YR-ABC. Sat on the left just in front of the hat rack door. That was back in the late 80's. Also managed a few flights ORY-TLS on IT Caravelle's. Never managed the Mercure though. One of my worst flights was in the back on an AZ MD-82. Like sitting next to the engine of an F-28 or ERJ-145. Bl00dy noisy ;D Oooops. Gotta get back to work  Paul |
|
|
|
Post by sunking on Jun 3, 2008 12:25:06 GMT -5
Hi. I didn´t know, that RAI is already 10 years old. Well, Happy Birthday! My passion for Retro Airlines is as old as your site... what a happy co-incidence. It was in 1998, that I´ve bought my first ever english Book with my own pocket money. We still had our Deutsche Mark back then, but still 65,- DM was quite a lot for a fifteen year old. Nevertheless, I loved the DC-10 since six years. AFAIK, it was the Aerofax DC-10 Book from Arthur steffens, which I still have today and use a lot for paints researches. Anyhow, there were this two picture´s from McDD - they always looked so splendid - and they showed... right a NAL DC-10 (one in-flight and one from a delivery party). I don´t exactly remember how, but that was when I fell in love with the "Sun King" and this desire lasts till today. This should explain my nick and paints. Retro Traffic: I do remember some of my Flights in the 1980´s. The first being on ALIA (747-200M and L1011-500) in 1985/86, followed by MAS (747-200 and DC-10-30) in 1987, JAT (737-300 and DC-10-30) in 1988/89 ( I´ve got hold on the exact Timetable last year and I´ll do it...) and Lufthansa (737-300 and A300-600) in 1990. In the 1990´s I had experienced the 747-300M and DC-10 from MAS (1992 and the point I started to like the DC-10 and it´s engine on the tail), 747-400 from SIA (1995), A340-300 from Air France (1996) and last but not least Emirates´ A300-600 and A310 in 1998. I still remember seeing Pan Am and all the long gone Airlines at Frankfurt/M. before we departed and sometimes I wish I had taken some souvenirs from them. Once the Concorde even made it to Nuremberg. As said, after starting to like National and the DC-10 I desperately tried every addon including the DC-10, but sadly never found a NAL Bird for FS95/98. It was 2004 when I started my first paints, guess what? Yes, NAL. This was the time I found your site and got hocked to it. It´s one of the best site´s providing such a huge fundus of Schedule´s. Way to go! I hope this site will exist for many more Flight Sim generations to come, giving people the possibility to experience how colofull - in comparision to the present - Airlines were painted and to show how Aviation expanded and developed. I think it´s sometimes even better to see it - if also virtual - rather then to only read about aviaion history. And this is where RAI is a good source. Kind regards. -STEFAN-SUN_KING- |
|
|
|
Post by peterliddell on Jun 3, 2008 14:16:18 GMT -5
|
|
